Abstract [en]

We discuss the theory and phenomenology of pair annihilation, within an ultrashort laser pulse, to a single photon. The signature of this process is the unidirectional emission of single photons with a fixed energy. We show that the cross section is significantly larger than for two-photon pair annihilation in vacuum, with x-ray free-electron laser parameters admitting a much clearer signal than optical beams.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

New York, N.Y.: Publ. by the American Physical Society through the American Institute of Physics , 2011. Vol. 84, no 3, 032119- p.